How to disk for laptop?

• Shut down the computer.
• Disconnect power and battery.
• Drain any residual electrical charge.
• Locate the existing drive or storage location.
• Carefully remove the existing drive.
• Carefully connect the new drive to the system.
• Reassemble the computer.
• Power on the computer.

Disk Defragmenter might take from several minutes to a few hours to finish, depending on the size and degree of fragmentation of your hard disk. You can still use your computer during the defragmentation process.

Many of you might like to add a second hard drive to your computers for the following reasons:

For whatever reason, you need to install a second hard drive into your laptop or desktop PC. If you just use the second drive to store photos, documents, etc., for convenience, you can install an external hard drive.

However, some of you may prefer to install a second internal hard drive, not an external hard drive, because of the following defects you have to face when installing an external hard drive:

Based on the above factors, I would like to introduce how to install a second hard drive inside the computer, instead of installing an external hard drive. To install a second hard drive, please keep reading to get the main points.

Before installing a second hard drive, you should figure out two things: is your computer suitable to install a second hard drive, and which hard drive is right for your computer? Let's explore them one by one.

Kindly Reminder: The improper disassembly may cause damage to your computer and make your computer not boot. Please back up your data first. You can use MiniTool Partition Wizard to do that. Click here to get the detailed guide.

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Generally speaking, a desktop is always suitable for a second hard drive or even more, because it is usually equipped with more than one hard drive bay.

However, not all laptops are suitable to install a second hard drive. Some laptops have only one hard drive bay, which means it can install only one hard drive.

Therefore, before you buy a second hard drive for your laptop, you should check the number of the hard drive bays in your laptop.

Here is the tutorial.

Step 1: Shut down your notebook and unplug the power cord.

Step 2: Turn the notebook over to make the bottom side up. Then, remove the battery.

Step 3: Find the location of the hard drive, and then use a cross screwdriver to unscrew the screws that fasten the cover.

Step 4: Remove the cover and you will see how many hard drive bays are there.

If your computer has more than one hard drive bay or an extra optical drive bay, you can decide which kind of hard drive you want to install. However, to some extent, that is also determined by the hard drive bay. In general, the hard drive bay determines the following three factors of the new hard drive:

Interface: The socket build-in the hard drive determines the interface of the second hard drive, because the socket needs to match the interface.

Here are some common hard drive interfaces and the corresponding sockets for personal computers. You can check which hard drive interface is right for your computer according to the socket.

1. IDE Interface and Socket

Nowadays, IDE interface is gradually being phased out because of its slow data transfer rate. You can only see it in a very old computer.

2. SATA Interface and Socket

SATA interface is the most common hard disk interface now.

3. M.2 Interface and Socket

M.2 interface is a new generation interface standard tailored for Ultrabooks. This interface is usually used in SSDs. M.2 interface has two types: B key and M key. B key has 5 pins and M key has 6 pins.

On the market, there are few M.2 SSDs with only B key. M.2 SSDs with M key or B plus M keys are more popular.

If you want to know more about M.2 SSD or SATA SSD, you can refer to the following post:

Size: In general, laptops use 2.5-inch hard drives and desktops use 3.5-inch hard drives. However, if the hard drive interface is mSATA, M.2, or PCI (these interfaces are usually used in laptops), the size will be much smaller.

Thickness: The last factor is thickness. The early 2.5 or 3.5-inch hard drives reached 9. 5mm, but the current hard drives are basically 7mm thick. A thinner hard drive can fit in a deeper bay. On the contrary, a thicker hard drive can seldom fit in a shallow bay.

In addition, some SSDs designed for Ultrabooks may be much thinner (these SSDs are usually equipped with an M.2 or PCI interface).

After you buy a proper hard drive, you can refer to the following tutorials to install it in a laptop or a desktop. For those who want to know how to install a new hard drive or how to install SSD in PC, these tutorials are also worth reference.

Step 1: In the similar way, remove the computer bottom cover to find the hard drive bay.

Step 2: Use a cross screwdriver to screw the screws, fastening the hard drive in the hard drive bracket.

Step 3: Insert the hard drive into the slot and screw the screws to fasten the bracket (with the hard drive in it) into the computer.

Step 4: Remount the bottom panel of the laptop and screw the fasteners.

Further Reading:

You can follow the steps below to install a second hard drive in the optical drive bay.

Step 1: Disconnect the power and remove the battery.

Step 2: Unscrew the two fasteners (shown in the following picture) to remove the optical drive tray.

Step 3: Fasten the second hard drive into a hard drive caddy tray for optical drive slot.

Step 4: Remove the baffle from the optical drive tray and install it on the hard drive caddy tray.

Step 5: Insert the hard drive caddy tray into the optical drive bay and screw the two fasteners unscrewed previously.

Step 1: Disconnect the power to the chassis.

Step 2: Remove the front cover of the chassis by unscrewing two fasteners shown in the following picture, and then nudging the cover to the side.

Step 3: Remove the hard drive bracket from the chassis and fasten the hard drive into it.

Step 4: Slide the hard drive into the hard drive slot.

Step 5: Plug in the power and data lines, with one end into the hard drive and the other end into the slot built in the chassis.

Step 6: Remount the cover.

After physically installing a second hard drive, you may wonder how to install it in Windows 10. For that, you should initialize the hard drive, create new partitions, and format the new partitions.

Here is the tutorial on how to install a second hard drive Windows 10.

Step 1: Turn on your computer and open Disk Management by pressing "Win + R" keys, entering "diskmgmt.msc" in the Run box, and clicking "OK" button.

Step 2: For the newly installed hard drive, the system will automatically pop up the prompt to initialize it. The pop-up window looks like the following one.

Step 3: Choose MBR or GPT and then click OK button.

Then, you can use this hard drive normally.

As for how to format a new hard drive, you can refer to the following steps.

Step 1: Right-click the black unallocated space and choose New Simple Volume. Follow the wizard to create a new partition.

Step 2: Right-click the new partition to choose Format. Then, uncheck Perform a quick format to run a full format, which will automatically check the hard drive to fix some errors.

You can also complete the above process through MiniTool Partition Wizard. It is a professional partition management software.

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to install a second hard drive in your laptop and desktop PC. If you are planning to do that, I think you may need this tutorial.Click to Tweet

Do you have any problems in installing a second hard drive? Please leave a comment below. If you have problems with data backup or disk management, please also leave a comment below or email us at [email protected]. We will reply to you as soon as possible.

Turned on its back, you can see how this particular hard disk carrier design holds a drive in a cage; the data and power connectors plug into mating ports in the laptop.

Always remove both the AC adapter and the laptop’s battery before handling any of the laptop’s internal parts. Don’t take the chance of having any electrical power in the laptop that could be shorted out by a tool, screw, or other conducting material.

Follow these basic steps for working with a drive that’s already installed in a carrier designed for your laptop:

It's a no-brainer, but if the thought of reinstalling Windows 10 (and all of your programs) and then tweaking all of their settings gives you the chills, don't worry. In an hour or two, you can easily be up and running with a clone of your current system -- except now your laptop will have blazing performance.

Here's how to do it.

The process of upgrading your laptop to SSD is fairly simple if you have easy access to your hard drive via a removable panel on the bottom of the laptop. If you have an Ultrabook or your laptop doesn't have that kind of easy upgrade access (eg, the bottom panel is sealed), it's a whole different ballgame, and you'll need to consult your laptop manual for instructions on getting to that drive and finding the right replacement drive. Otherwise, this tutorial will help those of you with the removable panel through preparing your laptop, cloning your system, and making the big swap.

The other thing you'll want to check before you go out and buy a replacement SSD is your drive's form factor; you need to make sure the drive will fit in the laptop. Most laptops have 2.5-inch drives, but ultraportable notebooks may use the 1.8-inch disk size. Also, even 2.5-inch drives can have different thicknesses -- 7mm or 9.5mm --and different interfaces (SATA or IDE, usually in laptops from 2008 or before). Laptops most widely use 2.5-inch SATA drives , but you should check your laptop manual or specifications to make sure you buy the right size SSD with the proper interface. Alternatively, you may be able to find this information by visiting Crucial's Advisor Tool (opens in new tab) or looking at your current drive's label: Open the access panel and look on the drive itself to see if it says 2.5-inch and SATA and what thickness you need. Generally, 7mm, 2.5-inch SATA SSDs will fit even in the 9.5mm slots and some come with spacers for a tighter fit.

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An SSD, of course — In addition to getting a drive with the right form factor and interface, you'll want to get an SSD with at least enough room for the Windows partition and any system recovery partitions. A 250GB Samsung SSD is currently about $89 (opens in new tab)on Amazon and a 500GB version is about $120 (opens in new tab). For most people, the 250GB drive should be fine, but the 500GB one offers more flexibility, for only a little more investment.

An external enclosure or adapter to connect that SSD to your laptop. For this how-to, we used a StarTech SATA external hard drive enclosure , although there's an updated USB 3.0 version you might prefer (opens in new tab) ($24 on Amazon). Either way, the enclosure comes in handy not just for connecting the SSD for the cloning process, but also afterward to turn your current drive, once it's replaced by the SSD, into an external one for backups and other storage.

Small Phillips screwdriver — For dismantling the proper panels.

Separate external hard drive (optional). You might need this if you have large folders, such as photos and videos, that might not fit on your SSD, and also to create a full system backup at the start.

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First we need to do a little prep work on your current drive.

1. Make a full backup of your system.  Create a system image backup in Windows 10 by going to the Control Panel (hit the Win+X keyboard shortcut and select Control Panel), then go to "Save backup copies of your files with File History" (under System and Security). In the left menu, go to "System Image Backup" to create a system image on an external drive or network location.

2. Move large folders that don't need to be kept on the SSD. Chances are your hard drive is larger than the SSD you are transferring to (for example, moving from a 500GB HDD with lots of media files to a 120GB SSD). If this is the case, move larger folders -- such as those containing your photos, videos, games, and personal documents -- to an external drive or other location to make enough space on your drive for cloning to the smaller SSD.

3. Clean up your drive for additional space. This is also the time to uninstall programs you aren't using anymore and delete unnecessary files that you don't want carried over to your SSD. Make one last uncluttering sweep with freeware CCleaner (opens in new tab), which deletes old temp files and other space hogs, or at the very least run Windows' disk cleanup (in Windows search -- look for "disk cleanup," then choose "Free up disk space on this PC").

Now we'll get the SSD set up for the cloning process.

1. Physically connect the SSD. Place the SSD in the enclosure or connect it to the USB-to-SATA adapter, and then connect it to your laptop with the USB cable.

2. Initialize the SSD.  If the SSD doesn't show up on your computer with a new drive letter, head to Windows' Disk Management tool. Bring up Windows search again and look for "disk management," then choose "Create and format hard disk partitions." In Disk Management, you should see the SSD as a new disk under your current one. If it says "Not initialized," right-click on the drive and choose "Initialize disk."

3. Resize the current drive partition to be the same size or smaller than the SSD. While you're in Disk Management, check to see if your current disk's primary partition is larger than the SSD. (Usually, C: is the one that has Windows and your installed programs.) If not, you'll need to shrink the partition so that it and the other system recovery partitions are smaller than the SSD. Right-click on the OS partition and choose "Shrink…"

In the next window, leave the defaults and click "Shrink." This will resize the primary partition so it's smaller and leave the rest of the space as unallocated. Don't worry; during the cloning process, the cloning software will properly resize and allocate extra space to the main partition on your SSD.

At this time, you should restart your computer to make sure that the partition works before cloning.

Finally, it's time to clone your drive to the SSD.

1. Install disk cloning software. For this tutorial, we're using EaseUS Todo Backup Free (opens in new tab), which is free for personal use, has a user-friendly interface, and also optimizes the migration to an SSD.

2. Select the source and destination drives in the cloning software. In EaseUS Todo Backup, select the "Clone" option from the main menu. Follow the wizard to select your source disk (your HDD) and your destination (the SSD).

Note in particular that you should tick the "Optimize for SSD" option when you select the destination drive. This makes sure the sectors are aligned on your SSD and improves your chances of booting from the SSD after the cloning process. (EaseUS notes that it's not necessary to tick the "sector by sector" option, which copies every sector over, even if they're empty or bad.)

3. Review the layout and start cloning. In the next screen, you'll be able to compare the source drive with your SSD. As you see below, EaseUS automatically adjusts for different-sized drives by using the unallocated space on your current drive (which we created in step 3 of the last section).

Click "Proceed" then choose "Shut down computer when the operation completed." This took us about 45 minutes to complete, but your mileage may vary.

Now let's remove the old drive and install the SSD.

1. Turn the computer off and remove the back panel. Turn your laptop off and then disconnect both the power cable and any other connected cables -- including the SSD. Then unscrew the back panel and remove it to get access to your hard drive.

2. Look for any screws securing your drive to the laptop. You'll need to unscrew those before you can remove the drive.

3. Lift the old drive up about 30 or 45 degrees and pull it out.

4. In its place, install the SSD and put the back panel on. Install the SSD by doing the reverse of how you removed the HDD: Slide the drive in at an angle and push it firmly into place so it's fully connected to the interface. Then secure it with the screw you removed in the last step and, finally, screw the back panel covering the drive back on.

5. Boot up with the SSD. Now for the moment of truth: Turn your laptop on. If your laptop boots as normal and you see all of your programs and settings just the way they were before (except much faster), all went well.

For one final test to see everything went as planned, let's make sure Windows recognizes your drive as an SSD. Hit Win+S to search for "defrag" and select "Defragment and optimize your drives." In the Optimize Drives window, your drive should be listed as a Solid State Drive. Mission complete!

(By the way, SSDs should not be defragmented. Windows 10 knows this. If it detects your drive as an SSD, instead of defragmenting the drive, it will optimize it for the TRIM command, which improves the performance of your SSD. By default, your drive will be automatically optimized.)

You can now put your old drive in the enclosure and wipe it in Disk Management, perhaps moving your media files to this drive. Just make sure your automated backup system (you have one, right?) covers both your new internal drive and connected external ones.

Another way you can tell the migration worked? You're now booting up, launching programs, and multitasking so much faster than before.